Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Shaw (1824-1914) span the years 1847-1867, with the bulk of the material dating from 1850 to 1859. The papers are in English, consisting chiefly of correspondence but include financial papers, notes, printed matter, and envelopes.
Shaw worked with Clara Barton in the United States Patent Office in the 1850s and lived in the same building at 437 7th Street, NW (then 488 1/2 7th Street), Washington, D.C., where Barton operated her bureau for missing soldiers at the end of the Civil War. Shaw lived at this residence for approximately fifty years. This collection of papers and other material relating to Clara Barton were discovered in the attic of the building in 1996.
The majority of the Shaw papers consists of correspondence from Shaw's mother, Salona Wilmarth Shaw, and his sister, Anna Shaw Barney, who lived in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and the Brainard family of Haddam, Connecticut, with whom Shaw boarded while teaching school from about 1849 to 1852. The letters document daily life of women in antebellum New England, the importance of letter-writing to convey family and local news, and the significance of visiting during that era. Shaw’s sister was a school teacher; her letters contain comments about her students and her efforts to educate them. In a letter of 18 January 1855, Anna Shaw writes about traveling to Boston where she saw Henry J. Gardner, governor of Massachusetts, take the oath of office and give his inaugural address. Also in that letter she mentions that while on that trip she sat near Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune. She provides a detailed description of Greeley’s physical appearance and characterized him as an "eccentric genius." Letters from Shaw’s mother include admonishments to him about maintaining a good appearance in his clothing, the importance of staying out of debt, and comments about moral conduct and religion.
Shaw also received letters from Edward Hodges relating to military pension land warrants and letters from Samuel R. Brainard concerning Shaw’s investment in the Almon Bacon (schooner). Also reflected in the papers is Shaw’s stint in 1853 as a telegraphic correspondent for the Associated Press in Washington, D.C., and letters from various friends and acquaintances requesting advice or assistance in obtaining patents while Shaw worked in the Patent Office. Shaw also corresponded with Clara Barton’s nephew Bernard B. Vassall, from Bartonsville, North Carolina. Vassall's letters describe the people and daily life in Bartonsville, his comments about political affairs, and his desire to obtain a patronage job in Washington, D.C.
The collection also includes references to national political matters such as the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 (letter of 14 October 1850), the presidential campaign of 1856 (letters of 30 January 1854 and 16 September 1856), and the bloodshed in Kansas over slavery (letters of 28 May 1856 and 16 September 1856). Also included is a form letter from the office of Senator Charles Sumner, 7 March 1859, mentioning the lingering physical and political effects of Sumner’s caning by Representative Preston Brooks in 1856.